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February 13, 2008

We Did This to Ourselves

The Aesthetic Elevator carries a brief post regarding the latest bit of shameless Messiah Marketing, "Lookin' Good for Jesus" lip balm, shown at left. Now, there are apparently those who think this is a Christian product, that it is a sunny and naive (if cheesy) endorsement of simple faith and purity.

I have a very hard time believing this was conceived as anything but a parody of the Christian faith. See, slamming Jesus in public is okay, now, even hip, so taking a swipe at chastity in the guise of a gaudy bit of Jesus Kitsch is just *too* clever, you know.

In fact, the people that market this remind me of the Clevers in C.S. Lewis' book The Pilgrims Regress; "Priceless!", exclaimed one half of the Clevers, "too Puritanian!".

Then, it puts me in mind of Jadis shaving Aslan's mane. Or of this;

"They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and
then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They
put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. 'Hail, king of the Jews!' they said." - Matthew 27:28-29

Looks like someone is desperately working toward their Jaded and Sardonic Merit Badge. But, you know, making fun of stuff is easier than using your time to like, you know, try to do anything important.

I might begin to believe these hack artists actually have some stones when they introduce a line of Mohammed cosmetics. How daring! How droll! What's holding you up, guys?

7 Comments

Wow. I could believe it is "Christian" in a certain sense. I remember being sold Christian T-Shirts in high school that had a picture of Jesus jumping and read, "Air Jesus." Hmph.

It appears to me that much of our Christian pop-culture has become too pop and not enough Christian. Fads, bracelets, T-shirts, music, etc. are the signs of "true faith." Not chastity, holiness, devout beliefs, or even church attendance. This stuff really frustrates me, especially with how popular it become so fast.

From what I understand, this is and Asian product, and knowing a little about Asian culture I believe it's perfectly possible that some well-meaning but clueless non-Christian company thought this would be just a dandy idea.
On the other hand, this sort of casual mockery is certainly prevelent in many areas -- starting with cross-shaped nose rings, and heading quickly downhill.

My first thought was someone was making a mockery of Christ. My second was that this was a Cru/Jesus Camp kind of Evangelical thing. In either case a product of a very sick mind.

If this was produced in Singapore though I bet it was just East Asian ignorance and bad taste. I've seen it before for example in a facebook Christmas Tree application developed in Singapore. Similar spirit, born of sheer ignorance and cultural difference, greatly improved with Western feedback.